NFL Week 10 Preview: Overcoming Slow Starts, Turnaround & Patriots Attack

The fact that they are the home team and can still win the divsion.

■ Speaking of surprise teams, how ’bout those Raiders?

Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has the best touchdown-to-interception ratio (18-to-4) of his career and tight end Tyler Eifert has nine touchdown receptions in those eight games, putting him on pace to set the single-season franchise record for receiving touchdowns. The playoffs are more fun when the Raiders are involved. It all starts in Florida where the Cowboys take on Tampa Bay.

– National Football League regular season, Broncos-Colts.

With this win, the Carolina Panthers remain the NFC’s only unbeaten team. In turn, this has allowed Adrian Peterson to run the football and Minnesota’s efficiency on offense is a key reason why they are 6-2 on the season. The Texans are second at 3-5 and the Jaguars and Titans are at the bottom of the division with 2.6 records. The firings gave the Dolphins and Titans a temporary boost but did little but pander to the fan bases.

The Patriots also stayed ideal but did so in slightly more stress-inducing manner, riding a last-second Stephen Gostkowski field goal to narrowly defeat the plucky Giants. For those who love football, this is what matters most.

Feeling jovial after big win, the old Jets head coach/new Bills head coach jokingly called out reporters from both cities for criticizing certain decisions he’s made over the last couple years. Seattle has given up 27 points or more in their four losses. Now sitting at 2-6 the Cowboys are in desperation mode to save their season, and against the Jets there might not be any playoff implications. The Patriots also had their what if moment as Julian Edelman return for a touchdown was stopped by his own player. Offseason free agent signing Chris Johnson is averaging almost five yards per carry.

Vikings: The Vikings share an identical record with the Green Bay Packers at 6-2. I took the Packers, Titans, Rams, Eagles, Browns, Cowboys, Redskins and Ravens. Big picture, a few teams continued to emerge at the top of the NFL’s power structure, while the rest just keep beating the hell out of each other.

Two happened with the Patriots against Washington.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Baltimore Ravens (-5.5) – Blake Bortles has been playing well enough to keep Jacksonville within striking distance of bad teams. Manning surpassed Brett Favre for the top spot on the NFL’s all-time passing yards list early in the game, but was unceremoniously benched later after completing just 5 of 20 passes for 35 yards and four interceptions, a quarterback rating of 0.0. “Nobody really knew anything or asked me anything”.

“The medical staff and the coaching staff were kind of upset with me afterward”. Six straight losses won’t help quell the (deserved) outrage toward Greg Hardy, who has become Jerry Jones’ albatross. That’s crucial because it takes a lot of pressure off Palmer. Hardy is guilty of the same sort of behavior and he continues to play. But someone clearly wants this information out there. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer complained that Rams’ defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, suspended for a year in Bountygate, has a history of his players taking cheap shots.

Because there are so few games, and we need something to talk about in the days between games, the National Football League is ripe for overreactions. Yes, the undefeated Carolina Panthers. Zimmer said to one official. I’m not going to stop. The Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers are on their byes.

And in the past seven seasons, 15 teams that started 4-4 or worse ended up qualifying for the postseason. Thankfully for the Panthers, their next four games will be against teams with a losing record.

Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay is loser of two in a row but it won’t be three. Or the defense just needs to play better. Speaking of tough performances, the Packers lost a road game to an undefeated team for a second straight week. Don’t look now, but Jay Cutler and the Bears aren’t playing too badly.

Tell you what: APP did not like Rex Ryan’s Bills last week after backing the Miami Dolphins +3 up in Buffalo, figuring the Dolphins would bounce back after getting spanked by the Patriots. Next up: Kerry Collins? Yup, he’s 13th with 40,922 yards, ahead of two of the three greatest quarterbacks of all time. Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino needed 19 games to reach the same mark. Jadeveon Clowney is hurt again, this time a back injury that is keeping him out this weekend.

It’s not pretty on the offensive line for the Patriots, either, as they will start their sixth different offensive line combination on Sunday while Sebastian Volmer attempts to come back from a concussion.